1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates to an automatic animal feeder and more particularly to such an automatic feeder adapted to provide food and water for domestic or laboratory animals at time spaced intervals.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
It is well known that the feeding of many non-foraging animals requires the intervention of humans to insure that adequate quantities of food and water are available to the animal on a substantially regular, periodic basis. The environments in which the scheduled feeding of predetermined quantities of food and water to an individual animal or a multiplicity of animals is necessary are numerous.
For instance, many owners of pets, such as dogs and cats, are, on occasion, required to be absent from their residences and are unable to obtain adequate or reliable human help in feeding and providing water to their pets. Similarly, in environments in which numerous animals are individually housed in a community setting, such as a kennel, poultry plant, or the like, the varying individual animals within the community will, in many instances, require differing quantities of food and water, as well as differing numbers of feedings.
Thus, a periodic replenishment of food and water for consumption by the various animals can and often does become a laborious, time-consuming task for persons charged with the responsibility. Also exemplary of such a typical environment is one in which experimental animals are maintained in multiples, the individual members of which have particularized nutritional requirements and must be fed prescribed quantities of food at closely regulated intervals.
Various devices have been proposed as means for providing a supply of food and water to unattended animals. However, such devices invariably are attended by one or more deficiencies. For instance, some by their design are incapable of being constructed compactly or to provide ease of portability thereof. Others are limited as to the quantities of food and water they can contain and the periods of time over which they are useful. Moreover, some previously proposed apparatuses require that the animal itself be trained to operate the apparatus to provide itself with food. Many of the previously described automatic feeders involve time controlled devices for dropping or presenting food to animals. Regardless of design, these devices for the most part are mechanically cumbersome and rigid in their utilization. Patented feeders encompassing rotative parts depend on the utilization of such crude devices as ratchet wheels or sleeves with saw-tooth notches for assisting the termination of movement of these rotative parts.
Accordingly, it has long been known that it would be desirable to have an automated animal feeding apparatus having a compact design, reliable operation and flexibility to accommodate the feeding needs of varying sizes and types of animals of different appetites.